Courtesy of the pacifist posture of the governor of Rivers State Siminalayi Fubara, the political storm that erupted on Monday October 30, 2023, in the Rivers State House of Assembly (RSHA), seemed to have simmered down. The phrase that discretion is the better part of valour must stand in its literal meaning to him. This is attested to by his approach to the recent political upheaval in the RSHA, where a lobby of traducing legislators launched a surprise but ill-fated impeachment salvo against him.
In the failure of that initiative the RSHA has split into two factions with the emergence of a new Speaker Edison Ehie, even as the former Speaker Martins Amaewhule still holds on to his claim of being the authentic occupant of the office. As things stand, the ruling of a court is awaited to finally determine the authentic Speaker for the legislature. Meanwhile the Police have taken over the RSHA edifice with all official matters thrown into abeyance until the court rules.
At the peak of the crisis, the governor’s worries went beyond the revolt by the by the impeachment-minded legislators, and included the Rivers PDP Elders Forum who subjected him to a scathing rebuke for faults that were unknown to the Constitution or the general public. Just as well, even the Rivers State caucus in the National Assembly threw their weight in support of the Elders Forum. This is not to discount the gloating pleasure displayed by the former Governor of the state and now Minister of the Federal Capital Territory Nyesom Wike – not only over the travails of Fubara his successor in office, but also accentuating his complicity in the sordid drama.
However, while feathers were ruffled around Fubara, he took the whole situation commendably with equanimity in his stride, and thereby established for himself the image of a man of discretion and focus. According to several observers, while the thrust of these tendencies may have been towards vitiating his clout in the state, Fubara’s posture of fixating solely on development of the state seems to have resonated with the general public, and served as an antidote to his traducers. This is also building for him the welcome image of a focused leader which the state requires at this stage in its life.
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For to the average Rivers State resident, the hunger for development is as consuming as it can ever be. While the immediate past governor Wike may be hailed frequently as having built some infrastructural projects – notably the much touted flyover bridges, roads and some public buildings across the state, he also left behind a huge mountain of administrative dross along with numerous negative tendencies for his successor Fubara. These range from huge public debts, prolonged rifts with labour over unpaid salaries, wages, pension and gratuities, as well as system-wide stagnation in the state’s civil service establishment. Indeed, if ever there was any instance of arbitrariness in governance, the eight years of Wike’s administration (2015-2023), served as the unmistakable archetype.
To accentuate a part of the messy state of affairs under Wike as governor of Rivers State, the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics (NBS) records that as at June 2023, the rate of unemployment in Rivers State was 43.7%. In the same vein does the Nigerian Debt Management Office (DMO) record that the quantum of the state’s public debt as at June 2023 stood at N303.68 billion, being in second place to Lagos State which is the highest state debtor at N850 billion. Hence while Wike may be credited with helping Fubara become governor he also bequeathed to his successor a huge burden of debts and other liabilities. Considering that Rivers State is the base of the country’s oil and gas industry with its inherent wide scope for wider economic[prospects than the rest of the country, such depressed social statistics remain anachronistic.
As the immediate successor to Wike, Fubara is therefore saddled with a mountain of challenges which his predecessor overlooked or deliberately by-passed, and whose resolution will define the success or failure of his administration in the eyes of Rivers people. That is why the posture of stooping to conquer which is adopted by Fubara offers significant gravitas as his dividend for discretion in leadership of the state.
As Rivers people await the first full year budget of the Fubara administration, interest mounts in some most critical priority areas – one of which is agriculture development, with the Songhai Farms in Ogoniland claiming rave attention due to the promise of food security, which the project offers the state and the nation. Another area is industrialisation with all eyes set of the now moribund Trans Amadi Industrial Area. Yet another area is the promotion of skill acquisition and development by the teeming youth of the state to facilitate economic inclusion for them, and stem the rising instances of criminality and insecurity arising from acute joblessness.
A welcome angle that should feature in the forthcoming 2024 Rivers State Government budget is the fast-tracking of urbanization of the state and reduction of the disadvantages of the one-city status. It is in this respect that the recent announcement by Fubara that his government has plans to develop four new cities across the state, is simply sweet music to the ears.
As can be recalled, the challenge of developing new urban areas in the state has been an age-long matter, which has dared many a government in the face, with them often failing to do the needful. With respect to the matter of fast-track urbanization of the state, credit must go to at least three governors – Chief Malford Okilo, late Colonel Anthony Ukpo and Chibuike Amechi, who adopted perhaps the most visible, clear-cut positions on urbansation of the state.
Chief Okilo it was who during his first tenure (1979-’83) as governor of then Rivers State (including present day Bayelsa State), created 50 development units across his domain with statutorily defined powers to local authorities to promote the upgrade of their localities as much as possible. Also, under him were projects in land reclamation and sand-filling embarked upon in locations like Buguma, Okrika, Borokiri (Port Harcourt), Nembe and others.
Late Brigadier General Anthony Ukpo (Rivers State military governor: 1986 -1988) was he who during his tenure as military governor designated all communities in state with populations in excess of 20,000 as urban areas. However, beyond their official designation hardly was much done to lift them accordingly.
As for Rotimi Amaechi, history will be kind to his enterprise in facilitating the Greater Port Harcourt Project (GPH), to its level of development, before it fell into the terrain of neglect by the Nyesom Wike led administration. With a span covering the seven local government areas of Port Hatrcourt, Obio Akpor, Okrika, Ogu Bolo, Oyigbo, Ikwerre, Etche and Eleme, it dictates a crying need to fast track the upgrade of the rest of the state to provide parity in development status, of the entire state.
It is in this respect that the new thrust of urbanization of the state should consider the Asari Toru, Akuku Toru. Degema axis, along with the Ahoada, Ogoni, Opobo and Bonny the beneficiaries of the new consideration of candidates for upgrade into new cities.
